Scholz ‘relieved’ at release of German-Israeli hostages

Scholz ‘relieved’ at release of German-Israeli hostages
A military helicopter transporting newly-released Israeli hostage Arbel Yehud lands at Sheba Tel HaShomer Medical Center in Ramat Gan on Jan. 30, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 30 January 2025
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Scholz ‘relieved’ at release of German-Israeli hostages

Scholz ‘relieved’ at release of German-Israeli hostages
  • “We are relieved and rejoice with all the hostages who have been released,” Scholz said on X
  • “All of the hostages must be released and all mortal remains of the deceased returned to the families“

BERLIN: Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday welcomed the release of two German-Israeli hostages captured by Palestinian militants in the October 7, 2023 attack and urged the release of all remaining captives.
Earlier, militants in Gaza freed five Thai and three Israeli hostages, among them two German-Israeli dual nationals, 80-year-old Gadi Moses and 29-year-old Arbel Yehud.
“We are relieved and rejoice with all the hostages who have been released,” Scholz said in a post on the social media platform X.

“All of the hostages must be released and all mortal remains of the deceased returned to the families.”
Thursday’s exchange is the third to take place under the current Gaza ceasefire.
Israel is to release 110 prisoners, including 30 minors, in exchange for the three Israelis, said the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, an advocacy group.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also hailed the “blessing” of the release of Moses and Yehud, who she said had been “tormented by Hamas until the end.”
“Their strength moves me deeply,” she wrote in an X post in German and Hebrew, but added that “both have lost close relatives through cruel Hamas terror” and that their “worlds... are no longer the same.”
She said a second phase for the ceasefire was essential.
During the current first phase of the deal, the terms of the second phase are to be negotiated, with the aim of freeing the last hostages in Gaza and bringing the war to a definitive end.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he had written to Moses’s and Yehud’s families to share his “deep joy” at the news of their release.
“We can scarcely imagine what Arbel Yehud and Gabi Moses have been through,” Steinmeier said.


New UN envoy to Libya vows to pursue ‘peace and stability’

New UN envoy to Libya vows to pursue ‘peace and stability’
Updated 20 February 2025
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New UN envoy to Libya vows to pursue ‘peace and stability’

New UN envoy to Libya vows to pursue ‘peace and stability’
  • Hanna Serwaa Tetteh said as she took up the role in Tripoli that her task “will not be easy” and called for “working together“
  • She was appointed last month by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as his Special Representative and head of UNSMIL

TUNIS: The new United Nations envoy to Libya pledged on Thursday to “spare no effort in achieving peace and stability” in the divided country, said the UN Support Mission in Libya.
Hanna Serwaa Tetteh, a Hungary-born Ghanaian former parliamentarian and minister, said as she took up the role in Tripoli that her task “will not be easy” and called for “working together,” UNSMIL said in a statement.
Libya has struggled to recover from the chaos that followed the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that overthrew longtime ruler Muammar Qaddafi.
It remains split between a UN-recognized government in Tripoli and a rival authority in the east backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.
Tetteh was appointed last month by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as his Special Representative and head of UNSMIL, succeeding the Senegalese Abdoulaye Bathily, who stepped down in April last year.
She was previously appointed the UN Special Representative for the Horn of Africa in 2022 and is the 10th official to hold the Libya role since 2011.
Tetteh pledged to “forge a path toward a Libyan-led and Libyan-owned solution.”
She said her mission would also “work with regional and international actors... to preserve national unity, territorial integrity, and sovereignty.”
Presidential and parliamentary elections in the oil-rich North African country had been scheduled for December 2021 but were indefinitely postponed due to disputes between rival factions.
“UNSMIL will continue to work tirelessly to support and enable Libyan institutions to hold inclusive national elections and forge a collective national vision to address Libya’s long-standing challenges,” said the statement.


Strike shuts Tunisia mining town over infrastructure woes

Strike shuts Tunisia mining town over infrastructure woes
Updated 20 February 2025
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Strike shuts Tunisia mining town over infrastructure woes

Strike shuts Tunisia mining town over infrastructure woes
  • The regional URT labor union called for the strike to demand improvements
  • The strike followed a road accident on Tuesday when a bus collided with a truck in the town

TUNIS: Schools and businesses in Om Laarayes, a major Tunisian mining town, shut down Thursday as a general strike protested deteriorating infrastructure, days after a deadly road accident.
The regional URT labor union, part of the powerful UGTT trade federation, called for the strike to demand improvements to the southwestern town’s infrastructure and health care.
“All schools, shops and local institutions have shut down in protest against the deteriorating state of infrastructure,” said URT secretary-general Mohamed Sghaier Miraoui.
The strike followed a road accident on Tuesday when a bus collided with a truck in the town, killing six people and injuring nine.
“This tragic accident has sparked outrage among residents of our neglected region,” Miraoui told AFP.
“Such incidents are frequent because we still lack basic infrastructure Public transport is inadequate, and our hospital is poorly equipped even for emergency care, while the morgue cannot properly accommodate bodies.”
Despite its phosphate wealth, Om Laarayes, home to 40,000 people, remains underdeveloped.
“Our town is a mining city and has natural resources,” said Miraoui. “It should be among the main regions with infrastructure.”
Many inland areas of Tunisia struggle with social and economic hardship, unlike wealthier coastal cities.
Protests have been common in these regions since the 2011 revolution that toppled longtime ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and sparked the Arab Spring uprisings.
In the mining hub of Gafsa, people have long demanded better infrastructure and jobs by reviving phosphate production.
Tunisia produced eight million tons of phosphate in 2010 but has only been producing up to half of that in recent years due to underinvestment and recurring social unrest.
Phosphates, one of Tunisia’s few natural resources, are a key ingredient in fertilizers.


UN denounces Hamas’s ‘abhorrent’ display of hostages’ coffins

UN denounces Hamas’s ‘abhorrent’ display of hostages’ coffins
Updated 12 min 8 sec ago
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UN denounces Hamas’s ‘abhorrent’ display of hostages’ coffins

UN denounces Hamas’s ‘abhorrent’ display of hostages’ coffins
  • “The parading of bodies in the manner seen this morning is abhorrent and cruel,” said the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

GENEVA: Hamas’s staged handover of the remains of four Gaza hostages to Israel on Thursday was “abhorrent and cruel,” the UN said, with the Red Cross again pleading for transfers to take place privately.
“The parading of bodies in the manner seen this morning is abhorrent and cruel, and flies in the face of international law,” said UN human rights chief Volker Turk.
“We urge that all returns are conducted in privacy, and with respect and care,” he added.
It was the first handover of dead hostages under a fragile ceasefire that so far had only seen living captives exchanged for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
The ceremony to return the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons Kfir and Ariel, alongside a fourth hostage, Oded Lifshitz, took place at a former cemetery in the southern Gazan city of Khan Yunis.
The Bibas boys had become symbols of Israel’s ordeal during the unprecedented October 7 Hamas attack in 2023.
“Under international law, any handover of the remains of deceased must comply with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, ensuring respect for the dignity of the deceased and their families,” Turk said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has been responsible for transferring hostages and detainees between the Palestinian and Israeli sides since the war began in 2023, called for the transfer of remains to be carried out in private.
“Today the ICRC brought back the remains of those who should have been reunited with their loved ones in life, not in death,” it said in a brief statement.
“Our role today was to fulfil a vital humanitarian duty to allow families to mourn with dignity. They deserve to grieve and honor those they lost with a proper burial.
The ICRC said it remained committed to the role entrusted to the Geneva-based organization under the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
Ahead of the handover, Hamas and members of other armed Palestinian groups displayed four black coffins on a stage in front of a banner depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a bloodstained vampire.
After the handover, Israeli government spokesman David Mencer criticized the ICRC for having “not once visited our hostages while they were alive,” and having “made no effort whatsoever” to bring them medicines.
The ICRC has repeatedly said since the beginning of the conflict that it was making every effort to reach the hostages, but in vain.


Seven civilians killed in Syria leftover munitions blast: monitor

Seven civilians killed in Syria leftover munitions blast: monitor
Updated 14 min 38 sec ago
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Seven civilians killed in Syria leftover munitions blast: monitor

Seven civilians killed in Syria leftover munitions blast: monitor
  • “Seven civilians, including a woman and a child, were killed when leftover munitions stored inside a house” in Idlib province exploded, said the Observatory
  • Mohammed Ibrahim, from the civil defense in Idlib, said they received a report “of an explosion of unknown provenance in Nayrab

BEIRUT: Seven civilians, including a woman and a child, were killed Thursday when leftover munitions exploded inside a house in northwest Syrian Arab Republic, a war monitor said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the deadly blast a day after another organization said two-thirds of Syrians risked being killed or wounded by unexploded ordnance.
“Seven civilians, including a woman and a child, were killed when leftover munitions stored inside a house” in Idlib province exploded, said the Observatory, adding the toll was provisional.
An AFP correspondent saw civil defense personnel working to remove rubble and pull victims from the destroyed house.
Mohammed Ibrahim, from the civil defense in Idlib, said they received a report “of an explosion of unknown provenance in Nayrab, and when teams headed to the site, they found unexploded ordnance.”
Syria’s conflict has killed more than half a million people and forced millions from their homes since erupting in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.
Non-governmental organization Humanity and Inclusion said Wednesday that of the around one million munitions that have landed or been planted across Syria since then, experts estimate that 100,000 to 300,000 had never detonated.
It’s “an absolute disaster,” said HI’s Syria program director Danila Zizi, noting “more than 15 million people (are) at risk” out of the country’s estimated population of some 23 million.
As hundreds of thousands of Syrians return to their homes after Islamist-led rebels toppled longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December, “urgent action is needed to mitigate the risk of accident,” HI said.


Hezbollah readies massive funeral for slain leader Nasrallah

Hezbollah readies massive funeral for slain leader Nasrallah
Updated 20 February 2025
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Hezbollah readies massive funeral for slain leader Nasrallah

Hezbollah readies massive funeral for slain leader Nasrallah
  • Hezbollah has announced strict security measures and urged security forces to help manage crowds
  • Hassan Wehbe, 60, an electrician in Beirut’s southern suburbs, said the funeral would be “a historic day“

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Hezbollah is preparing for a massive turnout for the funeral on Sunday of its slain leader Hassan Nasrallah, an opportunity for a show of strength by the Iran-backed group after a bruising war with Israel.
Nasrallah’s death nearly five months ago in a huge Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs left Hezbollah supporters in disbelief and sent shockwaves across Lebanon and the region.
The country will stop for Sunday’s funeral, to be held at 1:00 p.m. (1100 GMT) at the Camille Chamoun sports stadium on the capital’s outskirts.
Hezbollah has announced strict security measures and urged security forces to help manage crowds that are expected to number in the tens of thousands, with people pouring in from Hezbollah strongholds across the country, as well as from abroad.
Hassan Wehbe, 60, an electrician in Beirut’s southern suburbs, said the funeral would be “a historic day.”
“There will be huge participation. Israel will see that we are not afraid,” he said.
Hezbollah has invited senior Lebanese officials including the president.
Its key foreign backer Iran has said it will participate “at a high level,” without specifying who will attend.
Nicholas Blanford, a Beirut-based Hezbollah expert and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said it was important for Hezbollah “to be able to demonstrate that they haven’t been cowed — that they are still a popular force” within the Shiite community.
The funeral “is going to be exactly the event for that,” he told AFP.
The ceremony is expected to last around an hour, including a speech by current leader Naim Qassem, who has called for a huge turnout.
A procession will follow to Nasrallah’s burial site near the airport road, now lined with yellow Hezbollah flags and images of him and other slain Hezbollah figures.
Civil aviation authorities said Beirut airport will close exceptionally and flights will be suspended from midday until 4:00 pm.
The US embassy has urged Americans to avoid the area.
Hezbollah was battered by more than a year of hostilities with Israel that culminated in two months of full-blown war before a ceasefire took effect on November 27.
After Nasrallah was killed on September 27, the group delayed his funeral due to security concerns.
The ceremony will also be for Hashem Safieddine, who was chosen to succeed Nasrallah before being killed in a later Israeli strike.
Safieddine will be buried on Monday in his southern hometown of Deir Qanun Al-Nahr.
The charismatic, bespectacled Nasrallah has long enjoyed cult status among his supporters.
For Ahmed Hallani, 35, taking part is “a religious and moral duty.”
Nasrallah is “our leader and the leader of our victories. We will stay beside him, alive or dead,” he said.
Iraqi Airways and Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines have increased services between Baghdad and Beirut ahead of the funeral.
Representatives of Iraq’s main pro-Iran factions are to participate, while several Iraqi lawmakers are expected to attend privately.
One of Hezbollah’s founders in 1982, Nasrallah was elected secretary-general a decade later after Israel killed his predecessor.
He won renown in the Arab world after Israel withdrew its troops from south Lebanon under relentless Hezbollah attack in May 2000, ending 22 years of occupation of the border strip.
Nasrallah’s years at the helm saw the group expand from guerrilla faction into the most powerful political force in Lebanon, only to be battered in the latest conflict.
Lebanon has said more than 4,000 people have been killed since hostilities began in October 2023, most of them after Israel ramped up its campaign in September, later sending in ground troops.
Among the dead are hundreds of Hezbollah fighters and a slew of senior commanders.
Israel has missed two deadlines to complete its withdrawal under the ceasefire agreement, and still has troops deployed in five places on the Lebanese side of the border after its latest pullback earlier this week.